Kanna Hashimoto is currently the cutest idol in Japan and she is helping Shonen Jump celebrate One Piece‘s 18th anniversary by cosplaying as a female version of Monkey D. Luffy. She’s is a Japanese idol singer from the all-female pop group Rev. from DVL.
The issue also includes comments from other celebrities, including Eiichiro Oda’s good friend Chibi Maruko-chan manga creator Momoko Sakura, Luffy’s voice actress Mayumi Tanaka, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters’ baseball player Shohei Otani, comedic duo Oriental Radio’s Shingo Fujimori and Atsuhiko Nakata, band AAA’s Takahiro Nishijima, and model Shiori Sato. The double issue also features an interview with Generations from EXILE Tribe. The all-male group is performing One Piece‘s new opening theme song, “Hard Knock Days.”
The official website for the upcoming TV anime based on Kouji Yanagi’s spy mystery novel Joker Game began streaming the first promotional video on Friday.
Joker Game is a Japanese novel series written by Kōji Yanagi. It has inspired a live-action film and an anime television series.
Joker Game synopsis from Haruhichan:
Taking place in the year 1937 on the eve of World War II, the story involves a mysterious spy training organization known as the “D Agency.” The organization is established by Lieutenant Colonel Yuki from the Imperial Japanese Army. His ideals lead him to recruit people beyond military academy graduates and personnel, while training them to become skilled agents in arts of manipulation. These agents would become a specialized team to conduct operations. One such antihero agent, under the name Jiro Kato, goes on a harrowing mission to uncover secret documents titled “Black Notes,” while battling forces from within and without his own ranks.
A new promotional video and visual have been posted online for the upcoming OVA of Sui Ishida’s Tokyo Ghoul spin-off prequel,Tokyo Ghoul JACK. Tokyo Ghoul: JACK, will have a limited run in Japanese theatres. The OVA will run from September 5th till the 18th before being released on Blu-ray and DVD on September 30. The OVA is centered around the character Kishou Arima, who is a High School student by day and a ghoul investigator by night. The story is also set in and revolves around the 13th ward.
In addition to this, a new visual was revealed:
The cast is as follows:
Daisuke Namikawa (Narsus from Arslan Senki) as Kishou Arima
Tokyo Ghoul is a manga series by Sui Ishida. It was serialized in Shueisha’s seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Jump between September 2011 and September 2014 and has been collected in fourteen tankobon volumes as of August 2014. A sequel titled Tokyo Ghoul:re began serialization in the same magazine in October 2014 and a prequel titled Tokyo Ghoul: JACK is running online on Jump Live. A 12-episode anime television series adaptation by studio Pierrot aired on Tokyo MX between July and September 2014 and a 12 episode second season titled Tokyo Ghoul √A, started airing on January 8, 2015.
Japanese cosplayer Nagisa Nagi has imitated the appearance of bunny outfit Haruhi Suzumiya from the second episode of the The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya series splendidly. Her cosplay was so wonderful, she stole the spotlight and all eyes were on her during the Comiket 88 event.
Charapedia asked 10,000 anime fans the question: Which anime characters have the most fascinating facial hair? And from thousands of fans, most of the responses are from the male fans (56.0%), female fans (44.0%) and teens to their 20s (71.5%) while the other 28.5% are 30 and over.
It was also revealed that the seventh volume of Kashiwa Miyako’s manga adaptation will bundle an original anime Blu-ray Disc on January 26, 2016. The Blu-ray will feature an unaired anime episode. The official Twitter account also posted a still from the new promotional video, teasing that Mio is “covered with a mysterious white liquid.”
Shinmai Maou no Testamentis a Japanese light novel series by Tetsuto Uesu with illustrations by Nekosuke Ookuma. Seven volumes have been published by Kadokawa Shoten since 2012 under their Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko imprint. A manga adaptation has been serialized in Kadokawa Shoten’s Shonen Ace magazine since May 2013. A second manga adaptation has been serialized in Hakusensha’s Young Animal Arashi magazine since February 2014. An anime adaptation started airing in January 2015.
“Hey, you said you wanted a little sister, right?” First year highschool student, Toujo Basara, was suddenly asked by his father and fell into a state of panic. On top of that, the eccentric father told him he will be getting remarried.
He then departed overseas after bringing Basara two beautiful step-sisters. But Mio and Maria’s true forms are actually the newbie Demon Lord and a succubus!? Basara was almost entered into a master and servant contract with Mio, but a “reversed” contract was formed by mistake, and Basara is now the master!? Moreover, Basara is being hit by one ecchi situation after another due to the contract, but Mio’s life is being pursued by other demon tribes and hero tribes! The most powerful contractor’s desire action drama begins!
From August 13 to August 16, an exhibit for Sword Art Online series titled “Sword Art Online Exhibition: The Seed” is currently being held at the Sunshine City Convention Center in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, and will be available again from September 19 – 21 at the Kobe Sambo Hall in Kobe.
One of the main attractions is the 1/1 scale figures of the series’ main characters, Kirito and Asuna, who are presented in their Aincrad avatars.
A recreation of Kirito’s room has also been featured.
Titania Asuna’s bird cage was also recreated just for the exhibition, and fans can get their pictures taken inside as though they were also imprisoned by Fairy King Oberon.
Also some of the weapons used in the later arcs have been exhibited, the Hecate II rifle used by Sinon in the Phantom Bullet arc, some pistols from Gun Gale Online, and the item Excalibur which appears in the Calibur arc.
Other Sword Art Online artworks, figures, and more which was at the exhibition:
RagnarosNagato, a fan of the anime adaptation of SankakuHead’s popular Young Jump manga Himouto! Umaru-chan has used his skills to recreate Umaru Doma in her “indoor form” completely out of lego blocks.
He also uploaded some of his WIP (work in progress) pictures as he was building the lego Umaru Doma.
Medicom Toy presents the latest in their Real Action heroes lineup of extra-large action figures, the lovely Hitagi Senjougahara from the popular Monogatari series in her school uniform. She comes complete with her set of school supplies like scissors, staplers, box cutters, rulers, and protractors plus even a handcuff and extra head part with her short hair style. Articulated more as a doll than an action figure, she’ll still show you just what amazing poses are possible in this awesome masterpiece of a figure.
Have you ever wondered why some episodes looked top notch and others look like some indie filler? Surely, since the anime industry has been around for over 50 years quality and consistency should be norm. Yet, after all this time we still get poorly animated episodes, like the infamous scene from Studio Deen’s Fate/stay night. Why is this? Well, it’s because nothing has changed in all those 50 years.
Thomas Romain is a French animator who is currently working in Japan on various anime, who is well known for being the creator of Code: Lyoko, the director of Oban Star Racers, working at Satelight and helping with the production of Aria. Thomas has released a brief overview of the anime industry on Twitter explaining how anime is created and why anime episodes can be so poorly animated. The following is only a generalisation of what happens in the industry, there are also other numerous factors that affect how anime is produced.
So one of the main reasons for poorly animated episodes is time and budget. They way that animators are paid, means that they care more about quantity than quality on a tight schedule. It’s probably how the previous episode of Dragon Ball Super gave us these scenes:
The anime industry has not changed in the way it works for half a century and anime is being flooded into the market every season. If you also want to know more about how anime is produced, watch P.A. Works’ Shirobako.
With Comic Market 88 (or Comiket 88 for short) officially opened it’s doors today and will be running until August 16, a video has been uploaded to preview what the “day 1 rush” is like. The video below previews footage of attendees running towards Comiket 88.
Lerche have revealed that the Yoshio Kobayashi hug pillow from their Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplaceseries we reported on earlier has sold out on the first day of Comiket 88. The pillow case sold for 10000 yen ($80.69).
Anime visual:
Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplaceis a Japanese anime television series produced by Lerche and directed by Seiji Kishi premiered on Fuji TV’s Noitamina programming block in 2015. The anime is inspired by the works of author Edogawa Ranpo.
The story takes place at a certain middle school where several murder cases take place. Kobayashi, a boy who goes to this school, meets genius detective Akechi, who comes to the school to investigate. Kobayashi takes an interest in Akechi and, in spite of his friend Hashiba’s worries, he volunteers to be Akechi’s assistant.
With Comic Market (or Comiket for short) in full swing and running until August 16, a preview video of the upcoming original indie doujin games has been compiled into an hour long video by Astebreed studio Edelweiss.
It has been announced that Teekyuu will be getting a sixth season and will air in October during the Fall/Autumn 2015 anime season.
Announcement image from Comiket 88:
Teekyuu is a sports comedy manga series, serialized in Earth Star Entertainment’s Comic Earth Star since February 2012. Its name is a pun on the Japanese word for tennis, teikyū (庭球?). The manga has been adapted into an anime television series, which ran for four seasons in 2012 and 2015. A fifth was recently announced.
The official Twitter account of the anime adaptation of Okayado’s Monster Musume (Everyday Life with Monster Girls) manga has revealed that the 7-meter hug pillow of Mia we reported on earlier has sold out in the first hour of Comiket 88. The pillow was sold at the Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou / Tokuma Shoten booth and retailed for 100,000 yen ($806).
UBIQ will be teaming up with the Fate/Stay night franchise to produce a set of shoes patterned after Saber and Archer from the series. The Saber and Archer Model sneakers come in sizes ranging from 22 to 29 centimeters. The shoes will retail for 11,800 yen ($95.15) plus tax and are available for order from Super Groupies.
The official website for the 10th anniversary of Kamachi Kazuma, the author of Toaru Majutsu no Index and several other light novel series, debuted in Dengeki Bunko, has revealed new visuals for the upcoming anime adaptation of the Heavy Object Light novel series.
Past visual:
The Heavy Object anime adaptation will begin its broadcast this October during the Fall/Autumn 2015 anime season. The series will air on Tokyo MX, MBS, TV Aichi, BS11, and AT-X.
The main cast of the series were revealed and consists of:
Eri Suzuki (Sanae Higashihongan in Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?) will voice the lead heroine Milinda Brantini
Natsuki Hanae (Ken Kaneki in Tokyo Ghoul) voices as Quenser Barbotage
Kaito Ishikawa (Tsumugu Kihara from Nagi no Asukara) will voice Heivia Winchell
Shizuka Itou (Akeno Himejima from High School DxD) voicing as Froleytia Capistranoy
A preview of the character designs in the upcoming anime were also revealed:
The Opening and Ending theme performers have also been revealed with ALL OFF and Kanto singing the themes respectively.
The first promotional video was also streamed earlier:
Anime visual:
Heavy Object is a Japanese light novel series, written by Kazuma Kamachi and illustrated by Ryo Nagi. ASCII Media Works have published 8 volumes since 2009 under their Dengeki Bunko label. A manga adaptation with art by Shinsuke Inue was serialized in ASCII Media Works’s seinen manga magazines Dengeki Black Maoh and Dengeki Maoh from 2009 to 2011. It was collected in a single tankobon volume. A second manga adaptation, with art by Sakae Saito and titled Heavy ObjectS, was also serialized in Dengeki Maoh from 2011 to 2013. It was collected in three tankobon volumes.
An anime television series adaptation was announced at the Dengeki Bunko Fall Festival event on October 5, 2014. A new manga adaptation was also announced.
Kwenser came to the Alaskan military base to study Objects, the new weapons that have completely revolutionized war as we know it – battles are fought by soldiers controlling Objects far away from harm. However, when he starts to get close to Object pilot Milinda, will he discover the grim truth behind Heavy Objects?
Norimitsu Kaihou and Sadoru Chiba’s moe / survival horror Gakkou Gurashi! have teamed up with Japanese canned good restaurant Mr. Kanso for a special late-summer event. Mr. Kanso locations nationwide are offering Gakkou Gurashi!-themed canned goods, with different menu items featuring a different character from the anime. The special collaboration started on August 7 and will run until September 30.
Here’s a full list of products to be sold:
Yuki’s Fluffy Dashitamago- 600 yen (about $5)
Kurumi’s Rosy Corn Beef- 850 yen (about $7)
Rii-san’s Homemade Miso Mackerel- 850 yen (about $7)
Mii-ku’s Super Dry Hot and Sour Soup- 600 yen (about $5)
Painfully Spicy Curry- 600 yen (about $5)
School Living Club Gourmet Boiled Beef-1000 yen $8)
In addition to this, any purchase of these limited edition canned goods will also come with one of three special illustration postcards featuring the characters from the series. One post card even shows off Yuki and Megumi dining at Mr. Kanso.
The most recent issue of Shueisha’s Weekly Young Jump has teased that a sequel of the TV anime adaptation of Yu Sasuga and Kenichi Tachibana’s Terra Formars manga has been green-lit for production.
In addition to this, the official website of the live-action film adaptation of Yu Sasuga and Kenichi Tachibana’s Terra Formars manga began streaming a teaser for the film on Friday.
The film cast includes:
Hideaki Ito (Princess Blade, Onmyoji, Umizaru, Sukiyaki Western Django, Lesson of the Evil) will play the lead role of Shokichi Komachi
Emi Takei (live-action Rurouni Kenshin’s Kaoru, Kyo, Koi o Hajimemasu’s Tsubaki, Ai to Makoto’s Ai, Clover’s Saya) stars as the heroine Nanao Akita
Takayuki Yamada (Densha Otoko, Bakuman., H2: Kimi to Ita Hibi) as Ichiro Hiruma
Shun Oguri (Fullmetal Alchemist: The Movie – Conqueror of Shamballa, Detective Conan) as Ko Honda
Kane Kosugi (Street Fighter Alpha, Choy Lee Fut, Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear) as God Lee
Rinko Kikuchi (Pacific Rim, Babel, The Sky Crawlers) as Asuka Moriki, based on Victoria Wood
Masaya Kato (Crying Freeman, 1998 Godzilla, Unfair) as Keisuke Dōjima, based on Donatello K. Davis
Eiko Koike (20th Century Boys, Seppun, Nasu: Summer in Andalusia) as Mina Obari, based on Zhang Ming-Ming
Mariko Shinoda (former AKB48 idol, Ouran High School Host Club) as Sorae Osako, based on Jaina Eisenstein
Kenichi Takito (Ryomaden, Climber’s High) as Shunji Tezuka, based on Tejas Viji
Rina Ota (The Next Generation -Patlabor-, Princess Jellyfish) as Maria Renjo, based on Maria Viren
Rila Fukushima (The Wolverine, Arrow, Game of Thrones) as the new, original character Sakakibara
Here’s a trailer that looks back at the Terra Formars anime series which aired in 2014:
Anime visual:
Terra Formars is a Japanese manga series written by Yu Sasuga and illustrated by Kenichi Tachibana. It is serialized in Shueisha’s magazine Weekly Young Jump since 2011. Viz Media began publishing an English translation in 2014. Two original video animations (OVAs), abridging the Bugs 2 arc were released in 2014, and an animated television series, covering the Annex 1 arc was also shown in 2014; Also, a spin-off manga titled Terra For Police started on May 10, 2014 in Jump Kai. A live action film adaptation will be directed by Takashi Miike.
With the space program attempting to travel to Mars, 21st century scientists were tasked with warming up the planet so that humans could survive on its surface. They came up with an efficient and cost-effective plan of sending cockroaches and mold to the surface so that the mold would absorb the sunlight and the insect corpses would serve as a food source for the mold.
It is now the year 2577 and the first manned ship to Mars has landed on the planet and the six crew members are ready for their mission. But what they find are giant mutated humanoid cockroaches with incredible physical strength. The crew members are easily wiped out, but not before sending a transmission back to Earth. Now, humanity will send elite warriors to exterminate the mutated bugs and claim back Mars.
With the first Blu-ray / DVD volume of the TV anime adaptation of Okayado’s Monster Musume (Everyday Life with Monster Girls) manga to go on sale this September 16, previews of uncensored scenes have been revealed.
In addition to this, the website revealed the series will have a total of 12 episodes and the first details about the Blu-ray and DVD volume releases for the anime. . There will be a total of 6 volumes being released with each volume containing 2 episodes each. The first volume, releasing on September 16 will contain episodes 1 and 2, along with: a textless Opening and Ending sequence, a priority pass for tickets for the special event in November, a special jacket, and a hidden voice command of Mia. The remaining volumes will release on:
Volume 2 – October 14th with episodes 3 & 4
Volume 3 – November 18th with episode 5 & 6
Volume 4 – December 16th with episodes 7 & 8
Volume 5 – January, with episodes 9 & 10
Volume 6 – February, with episodes 11 & 12
All volumes will contain uncensored footage of the anime. The Blu-ray versions will cost ¥6,800 (~ $55.00 USD) and the DVD will cost ¥5,800 (~ $47.00 USD) without tax. Along with the episodes, the volumes will also contain special jacket cards, visuals, a hidden recording of one monster girl, and additional video and audio material.
Here is the cover of the first volume:
and the first commercial:
The cast of the Monster Ops: Neutralization team were revealed earlier. The team are a group of females who try to enforce the Interspecies Protection Act, dealing with anyone who to break it or cause general trouble. The revealed cast includes:
Rei Mochizuki (Anna Kozuki in Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal) as Zombina, a Zombie and the team commando
Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou, usually translated as “Everyday Life with Monster Girls” but also as “Daily Life with a Monster Girl” or “Everyday Monster Girls“, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Okayado. The manga first began as a series of hentai one-shots. An anime adaption has been announced to Air in July 2015.
Monster Musume is currently published in Japan by Tokuma Shoten in their Monthly Comic Ryu magazine and by Seven Seas Entertainment in the United States, with the chapters collected and reprinted into—so far—6 tankobon volumes. The story revolves around Kimihito Kurusu, often referred to as “Darling” among various other things, a Japanese student whose life is totally thrown into turmoil after becoming involved with the “Interspecies Cultural Exchange” program by mistake.
Monsters—they’re real, and they want to date us! Three years ago, the world learned that harpies, centaurs, catgirls, and all manners of fabulous creatures are not merely fiction; they are flesh and blood—not to mention scale, feather, horn, and fang. Thanks to the “Cultural Exchange Between Species Act,” these once-mythical creatures have assimilated into society, or at least, they’re trying.
When a hapless human named Kurusu Kimihito is inducted as a “volunteer” into the government exchange program, his world is turned upside down. A snake-like lamia named Miia comes to live with him, and it is Kurusu’s job to take care of her and make sure she integrates into his everyday life. Unfortunately for Kurusu, Miia is undeniably sexy, and the law against interspecies breeding is very strict. Even worse, when a ravishing centaur girl and a flirtatious harpy move in, what’s a full-blooded young man with raging hormones to do?!
Swaps4 Productions and Big Bang Studio are excited to unveil the highly anticipated launch of Melody's Melon Mania, featuring Projekt Melody! This captivating, free-to-play...
